Supporting the Whole Child at WBJHS

To ensure that each students’ needs are met throughout the year, the West Babylon Junior High School uses a system called the Child Support Team (CST). Using this procedure, any student who may need assistance academically, socially, emotionally or financially can be recommended by a staff member to the CST and that team will develop a plan to meet the students’ needs and follow up with any stakeholders that may be affected. “By addressing the needs of our entire student population, we hope to level the playing field for all students and allow them to flourish in a program that has high standards while maintaining optimal support,” said Principal Dan McKeon.

Identifying students who need potential special education services is probably the biggest initiative of the CST. According to McKeon, we also focus on providing “in need” students with support groups through the school social worker. “It is our goal at the JHS to make sure that no student slips between the cracks,” he added. “The CST at the JHS is always identifying students in need and making sure that their needs are not only assessed by a team of qualified staff members but also that those needs are met in a timely fashion and monitored by the team throughout the year. Typically we hope that CST is a prevention for failing a course.”

This year, the school is focusing on establishing effective student/teacher mentor relationships. The CST team has developed the following goals:
* anyone in the building can refer a student
* all needs are met: academic, social, emotional
* all of the identified students teachers complete a feedback form that allows the team to get a full picture of the student across all areas of learning
* referring teacher presents to a team made up of the following: assistant principal, social worker, school psychologist, guidance counselor/cluster leader and if applicable the teacher responsible for the students IEP
* CST sets up follow ups
* plans come out of each meeting that are independent to each student
* track student progress